Stephane Sessegnon admits tomorrow’s home clash with bottom-club QPR is a must-win for Sunderland.

And the Benin international says it is essential the Black Cats do not fall victim to the curse of the new manager, as Harry Redknapp prepares for his first official game in charge of QPR.

After losing at home to West Brom, Sunderland will be praying there is no Harry honeymoon when QPR visit.

“We must win,” admitted Sessegnon. “It’s hugely important that we get a win tomorrow because it’s another chance for us here. We know it’s going to be difficult against a team fighting at the bottom of the table, but it’s clear we need to get some wins and pick up some points.

“It’s never easy against a team with a new manager. They’re a team who wouldn’t have expected to be at the bottom at the start of the season.

“They will feel they are capable of much better and I’m sure they’ll be boosted by a new manager.

“But at the same time, we’ve got to be confident that we can get a victory after the disappointment of Saturday.”

Sessegnon was Sunderland’s man of the match against the Baggies and scored for the second week in a row.

But his late strike and Craig Gardner’s earlier free-kick goal proved to be nothing more than consolation efforts, as West Brom ran out 4-2 winners to move up to third in the table.

Sessegnon said: “I thought we had the chance to get something out of the game. There were a few scrambles in the box, even after they scored the third.

“We had a very good opening to the game and created quite a few opportunities.

“But unfortunately West Brom scored which made it difficult for us.

“They’ve been doing very well and we knew it was going to be tough. We created chances, only to concede an unfortunate goal just before half-time.”

The ‘unfortunate’ goal came as keeper Simon Mignolet let a routine save squirm free, leaving Shane Long with a tap-in.

But Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill said: “Simon has been fantastic for us, absolutely fantastic. He’s entitled to something like that now and again. It was absolutely out of character.”